Donkey Kong is a Nintendo character that has been part of videogame pop-culture just as long as Nintendo’s main mascot character, Mario. Yet, Donkey Kong isn’t talked about as often despite debuting in the same game together. Whatever the reason for this, one thing that no one can deny is that Donkey Kong himself has endeared himself in the hearts and minds of multiple generations of gamers, going back to the days when the only notable videogame characters were him, Mario, and Link.

Since Donkey Kong is slated to appear in the upcoming Chris Pratt-starring Mario movie (fitting given the characters’ history) and voiced by Seth Rogen, if the Mario movie proves to be a success, then a DK spinoff or adaptation will not be entirely off the table. Even with or without his history with Mario, fans would flock to the theaters to see him if Donkey Kong were to appear on the big screen.

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The history of Donkey Kong games post-Mario can be correlated with the successes and failures of Nintendo’s other big names. Most if not all of the big ape’s most well-remembered games are sidescrollers, much like Mario’s, with one of the most well-loved examples of this being the original 1994 Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo (aka the Super Famicom in Japan). Despite his games being in the same vein as Mario’s and, by extension, were mostly, if not always, in his contemporary’s shadow, they brought with them their own unique setting and artistic flair that the creators at Nintendo could go a little nuts with and do things that they couldn’t do in the Mario games.

This was mostly played for comedic effect, likely because Donkey Kong is a gorilla. It’s easier to do funny things with an animal than with a person, especially when said person doesn’t have a voice or established personality. Still, the end result was that people who played Donkey Kong games because they were fun sidescrollers came back with many laughs as well as a good time.

How Serious and How Funny Should It Be?

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The first inevitable question that gets asked whenever the prospect of a movie or a series comes around is thus: “What genre should this adaptation be?” For most properties, the answer is obvious, so producers and studios tend not to think about it any longer than is necessary. However, for Donkey Kong, while the answer might seem obvious at first, one should never be so quick to jump to conclusions.

While any adaptation of Donkey Kong would undoubtedly have comedic elements, as he has been making audiences laugh for generations, one should never expect an adaptation to be purely comedic or even stick to one genre. Movies that are pure comedies, with some of the best examples being any of the legendary Monty Python movies, tend to focus very little, if at all, on any sort of plot because the story isn’t necessarily what is important. Making the audience laugh is.

As funny as Donkey Kong can be, his games have their own plots, some of which can get deadly serious despite their comedic elements, so a good balance of comedic and serious moments would be necessary. Luckily for fans, however, director James Gunn and his Guardians of the Galaxy movies showed that this could be done, so it is a hurdle to jump a filmmaker could jump. All that is needed is the right script.

The Forgotten Legacy of Donkey Kong (Outside the Games)

True fans of the Donkey Kong series of games will likely know that his upcoming appearance in the new Mario movie is not the character’s first time in the foray of animated adaptations. Donkey Kong has actually had an animated adaptation before with 1997’s Donkey Kong Country animated series that ran for two seasons with forty episodes. Most remember that series for its incredibly poor (even for the time) 3D animation, for being the source of several jokes in the age of the internet, and for giving Donkey Kong the character a pretty decent singing voice.

Unfortunately, however, while not good by any stretch of the imagination (although still unintentionally funny), this show is still the only notable instance of Donkey Kong ever being adapted into anything. So a filmmaker wishing to attempt to adapt Donkey Kong into a movie or a series will inevitably have it slid across their desk, and it will be up to them to decide whether to take lessons from or completely ignore it.

In the end, however, more than what is shown by any past adaptation, producers need to understand what sort of character Donkey Kong is and then build the rest of the adaptation from there.